{"id":50235,"date":"2018-09-22T06:08:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T10:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=50235"},"modified":"2018-09-22T06:56:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T10:56:32","slug":"robochrist-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/09\/robochrist-2.html","title":{"rendered":"RoboChrist and Robotic Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I feel like I need to comment on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2018\/08\/06\/the-daily-show-meet-jeff-sessions-robochrist-video\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Daily Show\u2019s sketch RoboChrist<\/a>, since it intersects with a number of topics that interest me: the intersection of religion and science fiction on the one hand, and religious freedom on the other.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #000000; width: 520px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 4px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/embed\/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:59e17311-de8c-486c-89e0-9a64313d4cd5\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But let\u2019s be honest at the outset. It\u2019s not particularly funny. It would probably have worked better if they had brought Donald Trump\u2019s proposed Space Force into the picture and made some sort of parody at the imagined intersection between that and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2018\/08\/18\/labor-department-quietly-grants-federal-contractors-religious-exemptions-to-discriminate-against-lgbts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">so-called \u201creligious freedom\u201d measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And for those interested in exploring the idea of \u201cRoboChrist\u201d in its own right, there is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anotherthink.com\/contents\/movies_books_music\/20070102_robochrist.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a lot there to be explored<\/a> that is a lot more interesting than what is in the sketch. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/02\/robochrist.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">my 2014 blog post \u201cRoboChrist\u201d<\/a> (borrowed from the title of a blog post elsewhere that prompted my own post) for some of what\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n<p>But I suppose what I should say about the matter is this. On the one hand, the fact that such a parody can be freely made and circulated illustrates that religious freedom \u2013 including the freedom to critique and criticize the religious views of others \u2013 is safe and sound in the United States. And on the other hand, this kind of cheap swipe at religious conservatives is likely to do little more than reinforce in their minds the sense that they are under attack in this country and actually need new laws, if not new robot enforcers thereof, to protect them.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the key issue in our time is not such criticism, even if unfunny and in poor taste, but conservative\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sheilakennedy.net\/2018\/08\/i-dont-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means-3\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">doublespeak use of \u201creligious freedom\u201d as a way of denoting the privilege of restricting the freedom of others and imposing their beliefs on them<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobcornwall.com\/2018\/08\/religious-libertyyes-but-for-whom.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The big danger at the moment is that legislative measures that claim to protect religious freedom will be used as part of efforts to reduce the freedom of minority groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Although my current research project about robots and ethics may seem to have little direct intersection with the subject of this post, deeper connections are there not far beneath the surface, branching off in a variety of directions. In addition to the key point about adjudicating between competing values, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/cacm.acm.org\/magazines\/2018\/8\/229765-how-to-teach-computer-ethics-through-science-fiction\/fulltext\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>CACM<\/em> article<\/a> on using sci-fi to teach real world computer ethics, the <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/robot-peer-pressure-is-the-newest-tech-threat-to-childr-1828369946\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">piece about robot peer pressure\u2019s effects on children<\/a>, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2176798-replacing-your-boss-with-a-cruel-robot-could-make-you-concentrate-more\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>New Scientist<\/em> article<\/a> about how a robot boss might help you concentrate (along with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2171995-ibms-debating-robot-argues-it-out-with-human-for-first-time\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">earlier one about a robot debater<\/a>), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalcafe.com\/alex-what-is-the-church-of-england\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">coverage of how the Church of England is turning Alexa into a prayer assistant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose the takeaway is that just as rather stupid comedy sketches may still have something about them that deserves serious discussion, how much more so do as yet not truly intelligent computers and robots nevertheless have serious implications for our ethics and our societies that deserve our attention? The relevance of machines to ethics and theologies of\u00a0<em>work<\/em> already in the present day is just one relevant example among many\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jeff Sessions\u2019s \u201creligious liberty task force\u201d is not messing around. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ROBOCHRIST?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#ROBOCHRIST<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EK43dctYXx\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/EK43dctYXx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDailyShow\/status\/1026535879005728768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I feel like I need to comment on the Daily Show\u2019s sketch RoboChrist, since it intersects with a number of topics that interest me: the intersection of religion and science fiction on the one hand, and religious freedom on the other. But let\u2019s be honest at the outset. It\u2019s not particularly funny. It would probably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":50238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,86],"tags":[2388,10490,10492],"class_list":["post-50235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamentalism-religion","category-science-fiction","tag-daily-show","tag-robochrist","tag-robocop"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RoboChrist and Robotic Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I feel like I need to comment on the Daily Show&#039;s sketch RoboChrist, since it intersects with a number of topics that interest me: the intersection of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/09\/robochrist-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RoboChrist and Robotic Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I feel like I need to comment on the Daily Show&#039;s sketch RoboChrist, since it intersects with a number of topics that interest me: the intersection of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/09\/robochrist-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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